226 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



the missionary, but who would kill any of their 

 women on whom the white man should merely look 

 to lust after her. . . . The term " savages," so 

 glibly bestowed by writers on the Indian races, 

 would be more correctly applied to those Christian 

 nations who play at the game of war, and who, 

 instead of deciding their differences on the principle 

 of " doing to others as you would they should do to 

 you," kill, burn, and waste as many and as much as 

 they can. 



. . . Yet the introduction of a pure and simple 

 Christianity might much benefit the Indian ; and 

 we must not too harshly judge him for transgressions 

 against our own moral code. The Indian's notion 

 of " crime," for example, is not the same as ours. 

 He feels the disgrace of being found out in a lie or 

 a theft, but if he escapes detection he exults in his 

 adroitness. He is naturally apathetic and dislikes 

 exertion ; but he makes his wife work like a slave. 

 On the Rio Negro I have seen the poor women 

 grating mandiocca by moonlight until midnight ; and 

 they must be stirring before daybreak to give their 

 husband his morning drink ; while he, extended in 

 his hammock, is warming his nether extremities 

 near a fire which must not be allowed to go out. 

 When I had seen this, I felt no pity for the Indian 

 when the white man took him by force to row his 

 boats and do other work for him. 



. . . On March 22 of this year a fearful earth- 

 quake shook the whole of the Quitonian Andes. 

 The damage done in Quito itself is estimated 

 at four millions of dollars, and some adjacent 

 villages are quite destroyed ; but as the shock 

 came by day, only a few people were killed who 



